Come Hell or High Water
In late September 2024, Tropical Storm Helene ripped through Western North Carolina. Helene eclipsed the Great Flood of 1916, and is now the most significant natural disaster in our region’s recorded history. The impacts of the disaster go far beyond the destruction of the natural and built environment. Individuals and communities across Western North Carolina have suffered immense losses that will forever shape our collective memory. As the old mountain saying goes, “come hell or high water,” the people of Western North Carolina have also persevered and demonstrated resilience and strength.
Come Hell or High Water is a community memory project to collect, preserve, and present the stories and digital record of the Western North Carolina communities impacted by Tropical Storm Helene. We hope to offer pathways for community reflection, healing, and long-term development of community memory not afforded victims of past disasters.
How will our story be remembered? By collecting the digital record of Helene’s impact, we’re hoping to help our community heal and process our collective trauma, as well as to make sure that the historic record reflects all the diversity, nuance, and truth of what we’ve experienced.
Participants are invited to contribute anything that holds meaning for you in how you experienced (and are still experiencing) the storm and its aftermath. Photos, videos, emails, screenshots, diary entries, songs and poems are all types of items that have been contributed to helenehistory.omeka.net for preservation and public access.
Browse items, read the FAQ, and learn more on the project website. You can contribute digital items or stories through the submission page, by leaving an audio message, or by contacting us.
Oral History Project
As part of this broader effort to collect, share and preserve materials related to Tropical Storm Helene and its aftermath in WNC, in April 2025 we began an oral history project to conduct interviews with a diverse group of local residents deeply affected by the storm.
Listen to interviews and read transcripts here.
Library staff and trained project volunteers are actively recording interviews. Please be in touch if you’d like to share your story in-person or over Zoom.
Creative Responses: Carolina Record Shop
Western North Carolina’s creative community was particularly impacted by Helene. In recognition of the arts’ importance to our community and power to help process and heal from traumatic experiences, BCSC proudly hosted artistic responses as part of the Carolina Record Shop in 2025.
ReClaim the RAD: Flood Debris Resurrected into Art
January 21 – March 12, 2025
Originally created by and exhibited at the Czart Gallery from November 2024 – January 2025, BCSC was proud to host this exhibition featuring local artists who created new work on pieces of debris reclaimed from the flood. Featured artists include the All Caps Murals Team, Gus Cutty, Rob Czar & Ashevillish, Sennyo Senn, Rachel Stark, and Amar Stewart.
and the green grass grows all around and around and the green grass grows all around
March 26 – June 10, 2025
In the spring, the artists of Swannatopia Experimental Art Club joined together “to collect our thoughts and incubate our visions as we redirect our gaze toward the farms, forests, and legume lagoons of our future.” Many of the objects on display were created in response to the prompt “How Do We Mark The Flood?” for an event held in November 2024, as well as other projects in the months since. Works on view were paired with library research resources highlighting the histories of agriculture and arboriculture in our region.
Swannanoan Silt: Photographs by Isaac King
June 25 – October 14, 2025
Leading up to the one-year mark of Helene, photographer and filmmaker Isaac King exhibited nine 5”x7” gelatin silver prints selected from a series of 35mm black & white reversal slides. The slides comprise one channel of the larger Swannanoan Silt moving image installation and performance,
The images directly engage with Helene’s ecological impact, as the original rolls of film were developed using water from the contaminated French Broad and Swannanoa Rivers in the immediate months after the storm. The photos take on visual artifacts and damage borne from their contact with the same water that destroyed the landscape depicted.
Screenshot Scrapbooks
Inspired by a 2024 artist project about what scrapbooking looks like in a digital age, members of the public are invited to work with BCSC to create printed “screenshot scrapbooks” of their Helene experience.
Just pick up to 24 screenshots from your phone that represent your Helene experience, and email them to friendsbcsc@gmail.com. Be sure that files are named sequentially, so that the screenshots appear in the order you want. This video explains how. (Thank you to volunteers Jed and Lindsay!)
We’ll email you when a printed copy is ready for pickup. Keep a copy for yourself or donate it to the archives! You can also choose to add yours to the digital archives. Here’s an example.
For Youth: Healing from Helene
Children and teens can contribute creative responses to Buncombe County Public Libraries Youth Services Librarians at any of BCPL’s 12 library locations. Youth writing or artwork showcasing creativity and resiliency will be collected in binders for public perusal at library branches, and selections may be donated to the Come Hell or High Water digital memory bank at helenehistory.omeka.net.
- Work must be created by youth ages 17 and under as a reflection of their lived experiences and memories of Tropical Storm Helene.
- Must be 2D (any medium) and fit on one 8.5 x 11″ paper.
- Up to 2 entries per person.
- Artwork physically donated to the project will not be returned.
- For entries to be digitally submitted to the online portal, a parent permission form must be completed.
Related Projects
Documenting this disaster’s impact on our community is a huge job. Come Hell or High Water is one of several related efforts to capture myriad incredible stories. To share your story further beyond the library, consider connecting with some of these friends and partners:
- Strength & Community: Swannanoa Valley Strong: Share images, video, or oral history to aid the Swannanoa Valley Museum in the creation of a new exhibit.
- Every Day, Everywhere, Everyone: Reflections on Community and Climate Resilience in WNC: As part of NCSciFest 2025, the Asheville Museum of Science recorded oral history interviews documenting stories of science and ingenuity.
- Appalachian Phoenix: Participants were invited to nominate a hero whose story would be shared in new work by Terpsicorps Theatre of Dance. View Heroic Stories of WNC or watch the recorded performance.
Other Resources for Helene Recovery
For disaster recovery resources, visit Buncombe County’s Helene Recovery portal and the Asheville Recovers Engagement Hub.
Buncombe County Public Libraries has a mission to connect and empower our community. Visit the BCPL Event Calendar to find events relating to recovering and building resilience as a community throughout the 12 BCPL locations, such as group conversations, writing workshops, and other programs related to the storm and recovery.
Come Hell or High Water is made possible through the support of the Friends of Buncombe County Special Collections, Buncombe County Public Libraries, the Preservation Society of Asheville & Buncombe County, UNC Asheville Special Collections, Warren Wilson College, and countless community volunteers.